ABSTRACT
The retreat of the West from global power has been examined through the perspectives provided by the lives and careers of four civilized rebels: Oscar Wilde, Jean Amery, Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. A fabric of rules and institutions for global governance including the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the World Trades Organization (WTO), has been inherited from the periods when the British Empire and the United States, in turn, acted as global referee. This chapter explores an analysis which tries to rise above the intense passions of the debate surrounding the project of extracting the United Kingdom from membership of the European Union: i.e British Exit, typically shortened to Brexit. In fact, Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and the European populist upsurge were all moments in the long retreat of the West from global power.
